The Imperial War Museum, London (previously the Royal Bethlehem Hospital, or "Bedlam"), additions by Sydney Smirke (Previously the Royal Bethlehem Hospital, or "Bedlam") James Lewis, 1815 Important additions by Sydney Smirke, 1835-1846. Lambeth Road, London Photograph and text 2008 by Jacqueline Banerjee [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.] The original building on this site was designed by James Lewis, the hospital surveyor for the old Bethlehem Royal Hospital at Moorfields. However, his design was based on prize-winning plans submitted by other architects, the best of which were by John Gandy (later known as John Deering). The asylum was completed in 1815, but soon proved inadequate. After the initial transfer of 122 patients, blocks were added in the very next year for the criminally insane. The building was greatly enlarged by Sydney Smirke from 1835 onwards.

Smirke provided wings on either side (since demolished) and galleried blocks at the rear; he also enlarged the original low cupola into a tall copper-covered dome, mainly, it seems, to help extend the space in the chapel beneath it. Smirke is sometimes said to have added the imposing portico as well (e.g., see Weinreb and Hibbert, 62); but Gandy had proposed a "pediment supported by six Doric columns" (Darlington): it is the type of structure to be seen at University College London , for which he also submitted plans, and on which he worked with William Wilkins. The portico can be seen on Thomas Shepherd's steel engraving of the Royal Bethlehem Hospital in 1828, long before Smirke started work on the building. Sadly, A.W. N. Pugin, who designed St George's Roman Catholic Cathedral diagonally opposite the hospital building, was confined here for a while in 1852 — though he was later moved, and died at home in Ramsgate later that year. In Ida Darlington's chapter on this building, the tall dome is criticised; but it is a familiar landmark in this part of London.

The chapter concludes with a brief history of the building's later use: The central portion of the front, with the dome looking disproportionately high above it, and the rear galleries were leased to the Commissioners of Works to house the Imperial War Museum. The building, which was opened to the public in 1936, was damaged considerably by bombs in 1940, 1941, and 1944, but by 1946 was sufficiently repaired for the museum to be re-opened. It is perhaps appropriate that a building occupied for so many years by men and women of unsound mind should now be used to house exhibits of that major insanity of our own time, war. Sadly again, the comment on the building's appropriateness for its present purpose is still timely. Note Bethlem Royal Hospital - Asylum Projects Bethlem Royal Hospital Monks Orchard Rd Beckenham, London BR3 3BX, United Kingdom Architecture Style "Bedlam" Bethlem Hospital at St George's Fields, 1828 Bethlem Royal Hospital is an active hospital for the treatment of mental illness located in London, United Kingdom; and is currently owned and operated by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

Although no longer based at the original location of its 1247 founding, it is recognized as Europe's first and oldest psychiatric institution. Bethlem has been accepting patients suffering from Insanity since the 14th century. The current hospital has been closely associated with King's College-London, and remains in partnership with the King's College-London Institute of Psychiatry. The hospital itself remains a major center for psychiatric, neurological and psychological research. The current hospital includes a range of specialist psychiatric services, such as the National Psychosis Unit for the United Kingdom. Other services on the hospital grounds include: the Bethlem Adolescent, which provides care and treatment for young people aged 12–18 from across the country. Bethlem also has an occupational therapy department, which has its own art gallery displaying work of current patients, and a number of noted artists have been past patients at the hospital over the years. Several examples of their work can be found in the Bethlem museum. The word bedlam, meaning 'an uproar or confusion', is derived from the hospital's prior name. From the fourteenth century, Bethlem had been referred to colloquially as "Bedleheem", "Bedleem" or "Bedlam".

Initially Bedlam functioned merely as an informal, alternative moniker for the institution but, from approximately the Jacobean era, it emerged as Bethlem's doppelgänger, detaching itself increasingly from the hospital, and entering everyday speech to signify a state of madness, chaos, and the irrational nature of the world. Although currently a modern psychiatric facility, historically it became representative historically of the worst excesses of asylum abuses and neglect. In recent years the British government has attempted to reform the image of the site, and in 1997, celebrated in 750th anniversary as a public facility. The service user perspective was not to be included, however, and members of the Psychiatric survivors movement saw nothing to celebrate in either the original Bedlam or in current mental health care. A campaign called "Reclaim Bedlam" was launched by Pete Shaugnessey, which was supported by hundreds of patients and ex-patients and widely reported in the media. A sit-in was held outside the earlier Bedlam site at the Imperial War Museum. Despite this it remains a model for psychiatric care in both Britain and the Americas.

Contents [ edit ] Foundation as a Catholic Priory: 1247-1330 Bedlem as it appeared in the 13th century Bethlem Royal Hospital's origins are unlike any other psychiatric hospital in the western world. As a formal organization, it can be traced to its foundation in 1247, during the reign King Henry III, as a Roman Catholic Monastery for the Priory of the 'New Order of St Mary of Bethlem' in the city of London proper. It was established by the Italian Bishop of Bethlehem, Goffredo de Prefetti, following a donation of personal property by the London Alderman and former City-Sheriff, the Norman, Simon FitzMary. It bears its name after its primary patron and original overseer. The initial location of the priory was in the parish of Saint Botolph, in Bishopsgate's ward, just beyond London's wall and where the south-east corner of Liverpool Street station now stands. Bethlem was not initially intended as a hospital, much less as a specialist institution for the mentally ill.

Rather, its purpose was tied to the function of the English Church; the ostensible purpose of the priory was to function as a centre for the collection of alms to support the Crusaders, and to link England to the Holy Land. Bishop De Prefetti's need to generate income for the Crusaders, and restore the financial fortunes of his apostolic see was occasioned by two misfortunes: his bishopric had suffered significant losses following the destructive conquest of the town of Bethlehem by the Khwarazmian Turks in 1244; and the immediate predecessor to his post had further impoverished his cathedral chapter through the alienation of a considerable amount of its property. The new London priory, obedient to the Church of Bethlehem, would also house the poor, disabled and abandoned; and, if visited, provide hospitality to the Bishop, canons and brothers of Bethlehem. The subordination of the priory's religious order to the bishops of Bethlehem was further underlined in the foundational charter which stipulated that Bethlems's prior, canons and male and female inmates were to wear a star upon their cloaks and capes to symbolize their obeisance to the church of Bethlehem.

[ edit ] Development as a Hospital: 1330-1546 An inmate at the Bethlem Asylum, circa 1500 During the 13th and 14th centuries, with its activities underwritten by episcopal and papal indulgences, Bethlem's role as a center for the collection of alms for the poor continued. However, over time, its link to the mendicant Order of Bethlehem increasingly devolved, putting its purpose and patronage in severe doubt. In 1346 the Prior of Bethlem, a position at that time granted to the most senior of London's monastic brethren, applied to the city authorities seeking protection; thereafter metropolitan office-holders claimed power to oversee the appointment of prios, and demanded in return an annual payment of 40 shillings from the coffers of the order. It is doubtful whether the City of London ever provided substantial protection, and much less that the priorship fell within their patronage, but dating from the 1346 petition, it played a role in the management of Bethlem's organization and finances.

By this time the crusader bishops of Bethlehem had relocated to Clamecy, France under the surety of the Avignon papacy. This was significant as, throughout the reign of King Edward III (1327–77), the English monarchy had extended its patronage over ecclesiastical positions through the seizure of alien priories, mainly French. These were religious institutions that were under the control of non-English religious houses. As a dependent house of the Order of Saint Bethlehem in Clamecy, Bethlem was vulnerable to seizure by the English crown, and this occurred in the 1370s when Edward III took control of all English hospitals. The purpose of this appropriation was to prevent funds raised by the hospital from enriching the French monarchy, via the papal court, and thus supporting the French war effort. After this event, the Head Masters of the hospital, semi-autonomous figures in charge of its day-to-day management, were crown appointees, and Bethlem became an increasingly secularized institution. The memory of Bethlem's foundation became muddled.

In 1381 the royal candidate for the post of master claimed that from its beginnings the hospital had been superintended by an order of knights, and he confused the identity of its founder, Goffredo de Prefetti, with that of the Frankish crusader, Godfrey de Bouillon, the King of Jerusalem. The removal of the last symbolic link to the mendicant order was confirmed in 1403 when it was reported that master and inmates no longer wore the symbol of their order, the star of Bethlehem. This was exclusively a political move on the part of the hospital administrators, as the insane were perceived as unclean or possessed by daemons , and not permitted to resided on consecrated soil. From 1330 Bethlehm was routinely referred to as a "hospital" does not necessarily indicate a change in its primary role from alms collection – the word hospital could as likely have been used to denote a lodging for travellers, equivalent to a hostel, and would have been a perfectly apt term to describe an institution acting as a centre and providing accommodation for Bethlem's peregrinating alms-seekers or questores.

It is unknown from what exact date it began to specialise in the care and control of the insane. Despite this fact it has been frequently asserted that Bethlem was first used for the insane from 1377. This rather precise date is derived from the unsubstantiated conjecture of the Reverend Edward Geoffrey O'Donoghue, chaplain to the hospital, who published a monograph on its history in 1914. While it is possible that Bethlem was receiving the insane during the late fourteenth-century, the first definitive record of their presence in the hospital is provided from the details of a visitation of the Charity Commissioners in 1403. This recorded that amongst other patients then in the hospital there were six male inmates who were "mente capti", a Latin term indicating insanity. The report of the 1403 visitation also noted the presence of four pairs of manacles, eleven chains, six locks and two pairs of stocks although it is not clear if any or all of these items were for the restraint of the inmates.

Thus, while mechanical restraint and solitary confinement are likely to have been used for those regarded as dangerous, little else is known of the actual treatment of the insane in Bethlem for much of the medieval period. The presence of a small number of insane patients in 1403 marks Bethlem's gradual transition from a diminutive general hospital into a specialist institution for the confinement of the insane; this process was largely completed by 1460. [ edit ] Rise of Infamy: 1546-1634 In 1546, the Lord-Mayor of London, Sir John Gresham, petitioned the crown to grant Bethlem to the city properly. This petition was partially successful, and King Henry VIII reluctantly ceded to the City of London "the custody, order and governance" of the hospital and of its "occupants and revenues". This charter came into effect in 1547. Under this formulation, the crown retained possession of the hospital, while its administration fell to the city authorities.

Following a brief interval when Bethlem was placed under the management of the Governors of Christ's Hospital, from 1557 it was administered by the Governors of the city Bridewell, a prototype House of Correction at Blackfriars. Having been thus one of the few metropolitan hospitals to have survived the dissolution of the monasteries physically intact, this joint administration continued, not without interference by both the crown and city, until Bethlem's incorporation into the National Health Service (NHS) took place in 1948. The position of master was a sinecure largely regarded by its occupants as means of profiting at the expense of the poor in their charge. The appointment of the early masters of the hospital, later known as keepers, had lain within the patronage of the crown until 1547. Thereafter, the city, through the Court of Aldermen, took control of these appointments where, as with the King's appointees, the office was used to reward loyal servants and friends. However, compared to the masters placed by the monarch, those who gained the position through the city were of much more modest status.

Thus in 1561, the Lord Mayor succeeded in having his former porter, Richard Munnes, a draper by trade, appointed to the position. The sole qualifications of his successor in 1565 appears to have been his occupation as a grocer. The Bridewell Governors largely interpreted the role of keeper as that of a house-manager and this is clearly reflected in the occupations of most appointees during this period as they tended to be inn-keepers, victualers or brewers and the like. When patients were sent to Bethlem by the Governors of the Bridewell the keeper was paid from hospital funds. For the remainder, keepers were paid either by the families and friends of inmates or by the parish authorities. It is possible that keepers negotiated their fees for these latter categories of patients. In 1598 the long-term keeper, Roland Sleford, a London cloth-maker, left his post, apparently of his own volition, after a nineteen-year tenure. Two months later, the Bridewell Governors, who had until then shown little interest in the management of Bethlem beyond the appointment of keepers, conducted an inspection of the hospital and a census of its inhabitants for the first time in over forty years.

Their express purpose was to "to view and p[er]use the defaultes and want of rep[ar]ac[i]ons". They found that during the period of Sleford's keepership the hospital buildings had fallen into a deplorable condition with the roof caving in, the kitchen sink blocked up and reported that: "...it is not fitt for anye man to dwell in wch was left by the Keeper for that it is so loathsomly filthely kept not fitt for anye man to come into the sayd howse". The 1598 committee of inspection found twenty-one inmates then resident with only two of these having been admitted during the previous twelve months. Of the remainder, six, at least, had been resident for a minimum of eight years and one inmate had been there for around twenty-five years. Three were from outside London, six were charitable cases paid for out of the hospital's resources, one was supported by a parochial authority, while the rest were provided for by family, friends, benefactors or, in one instance, out of their funds.

The precise reason for the Governors' new-found interest in Bethlem is unknown but it may have been connected to the increased scrutiny the hospital was coming under with the passing of poor law legislation in 1598 and to the decision by the Governors to increase hospital revenues by opening it up to general visitors as a spectacle. After this inspection, the Bridewell Governors initiated some repairs and visited the hospital at more frequent intervals. During one such visit in 1607 they ordered the purchase of clothing and eating vessels for the inmates, presumably indicating the lack of such basic items. [ edit ] List of the Priors/Masters Bethlem Hospital in 1557 Peter Mewtys: 1536-? Dr. Crooke: 17th century The seal of the priory of Saint Mary of Bethlem is said to have represented the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which was used by Bethlem Royal Hospital until 1948. [ edit ] Bethlem in the 20th century In 1930, the site of the hospital was moved to an outer suburb of London, on the site of Monks Orchard House between Eden Park, Beckenham, West Wickham and Shirley.

This move to accomodate the need for psychiatric care is a more peaceful and rural environment. The old hospital site and its grounds were bought by Lord Rothermere and presented to the London County Council for use as a city park; the central part of the georgian styled building was retained as being of historic value, and became home to the 'Imperial War Museum in 1936'. With the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, the Bethlem Royal Hospital and Maudsley Hospital were merged to form a postgraduate psychiatric teaching hospital. The Maudsley’s medical school became the Institute of Psychiatry. [ edit ] Current Hospital: 1990 to present Bethlem Hospital as of 2012 In 1999, Bethlem Royal Hospital became part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (or "SLaM"), along with the Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell. Later, in 2001, SLaM sought planning permission for an expanded Medium Secure Unit in 2001 and extensive further works to improve security, much of which would be on Metropolitan Open Land.

Local residents groups organised mass meetings to oppose the application, with accusations that it was unfair most patients could be from inner London areas and therefore not locals and that drug use was rife in and around the Hospital. Bromley Council eventually refused the application, with Croydon Council also objecting. However the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister overturned the decision to refuse in 2003, and development started. The new 89-bed, £33.5m unit (River House) opened in February 2008. It is the most significant development on the site since the hospital was formally opened at Monks Orchard in 1930. River House represents a major improvement in the quality of local NHS care for people with mental health problems. The unit provides care for people who were previously being treated in hospitals as far as 200 miles away from their families because of the historic shortage of medium secure beds in South-east London. This, in turn, was intended to help the NHS to manage people's progress through care and treatment more effectively. The Hospital Trust still owns land throughout England, often left to it as a bequest.

It owns a lease in Piccadilly for which it has paid the same peppercorn rent for over 200 years. This property is let out to shops and a hotel, which contributes to funding the hospital proper. [ edit ] National Psychosis Unit The National Psychosis Unit specialises in evidence-based treatment for people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other similar disorders, particularly where local treatment has been unsuccessful or only partially successful in relieving symptoms. Anyone receiving NHS treatment can access the service free of charge following a referral by the person’s psychiatrist or general practitioner. The service provides second opinions on medication, diagnosis or any other aspect of care. The service has an outpatient clinic and 24-bedded inpatient facility. As well as pharmaceutical treatments, there is a strong focus on psychological treatments, rehabilitation and recovery, and reducing the risk of readmission through exploring what has led to breakdowns in the past and how to avoid this happening in future. The Unit also hosts research into the treatment of psychosis, including clinical trials of new treatments for psychosis. The National Psychosis Carers' Group, which meets monthly, supports the carers and families of people with psychosis and allows them a forum for discussion.

The National Psychosis Unit has strong links with the Department of Psychosis Studies at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. The Unit also has longstanding links with mental health charities, including Rethink and SANE. [ edit ] Institute of Psychiatry The Institute of Psychiatry (IOP) is a research institution dedicated to discovering what causes mental illness and neurological diseases of the brain. In addition, its modern aim is to help identify new treatments for them and ways to prevent them in the first place. The IOP is a school of King's College- London, England. The Institute works closely with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Many senior academic staff also work as honorary consultants in clinical services for the National Psychosis Unit at Bethlem Royal Hospital. [ edit ] Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum Exhibition at Bethlem Museum Since 1970, there has been a small museum at Bethlem Royal Hospital, which is open to the public on weekdays. The museum is mainly used to display items from the hospital's art collection, which specialises in work by artists who have suffered from various mental health issues, such as former Bethlem patients William Kurelek, Richard Dadd and Louis Wain.

Other exhibits include a pair of statues by Caius Gabriel Cibber known as Raving and Melancholy Madness, from the gates of the 17th century Bethlem Hospital. 18th and 19th century furniture, and documents from the medical archives are also on display. However, due to the size of the museum only a small fraction of the collections can be displayed at one time, and the exhibits are rotated periodically for public view. Bethlem Royal Hospital also possesses extensive archives from the Maudsley Hospital and Warlingham Park Hospital , all in South London, and some of the archives of Bridewell Hospital. There are documents dating back to the 16th century, as well as full modern patient records (although these are not open to publiv viewing). The archives are open for inspection by appointment, and are subject to the laws of confidentiality governing recent patient records. The Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum is governed by a registered charity called the Bethlem Art and History Collections Trust. The museum is a member of the larger collaboration of the 'London Museums of Health & Medicine'.

[ edit ] Tom O'Bedlem Edgar as Tom O'Bedlam "Tom O' Bedlam" is the name of renown anonymous poem written in the 17th century about an inmate at Bethlem. It was first published in 1720 by Thomas d'Urfey in his 'Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy'. The term "Tom O' Bedlam" was used in Early Modern England, as well as following, to describe beggars and vagrants who had or feigned Insanity for alms. This practice is similar to that of the English Abraham-men . They claimed, or were assumed, to have been former inmates at the Bethlem Royal Hospital, who had been released and now composed the insane poor of the city. It was commonly thought that inmates were released with authority to make their way by begging, though this is probably untrue. If it happened at all the numbers were certainly small, though there were probably large numbers of mentally ill travelers who turned to begging, but had never been near Bedlam. It was adopted as a technique of begging, or a character. For example, Edgar in King Lear disguises himself as mad "Tom O'Bedlam".

It was a popular enough ballad that another poem was written in reply, "Mad Maudlin's Search" or "Mad Maudlin's Search for Her Tom of Bedlam" (the same Maud who was mentioned in the verse "With a thought I took for Maudlin / And a cruise of cockle pottage / With a thing thus tall, Sky bless you all / I befell into this dotage." which apparently records Tom going mad, "dotage") or "Bedlam Boys" (from the chorus, "Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys / Bedlam boys are bonny / For they all go bare and they live by the air / And they want no drink or money."). [ edit ] Images of Bethlem Royal Hospital Main Image Gallery: Bethlem Royal Hospital Bedlam1.jpg Bethlem Hospital (Imperial War Museum) | British History Online Bethlem Hospital (Imperial War Museum) Bethlem Hospital (Imperial War Museum) Pages 76-80 This free content was digitised by double rekeying and sponsored by English Heritage. All rights reserved.

Citation: Footnotes CHAPTER 9: BETHLEM HOSPITAL, NOW THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, IN LAMBETH ROAD Bethlem Hospital, now the Imperial War Museum, though much truncated, is the largest remaining of the buildings originally erected in St. George's Fields. The institution for which it was built was the successor of the mediaeval hospital in the priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem in Bishopsgate Without (on the site of Liverpool Street Station), the "bedlam" of common parlance. The first reference to the hospital as such occurs in 1329, (fn. 21) though with no indication of the kind of patients for which it catered, but an inquisition of 1403 (fn. 210) leaves no doubt that by that date the patients treated there were suffering from mental disorders. Bethlem Hospital The Mayor and Commonalty of the City of London took the priory and hospital under their protection in 1346, (fn.

211) and in 1547, after the dissolution of religious houses, they purchased the hospital and its possessions from the King and by Royal Letters Patent re-established it as a hospital for lunatics. (fn. 212) Ten years later Bethlem was placed under the management of the governors of Bridewell, and the two foundations have since that time been closely associated though they have remained distinct. (fn. 172) In 1676 Bethlem was moved to a new building on what was then an open site provided by the City in Moorfields. There it remained for over a century, but in 1792 the governors began to discuss the need for undertaking a thorough repair of the old premises or the erection of new ones. (fn. 213) Nothing more active was done until 1800, when James Lewis, the hospital surveyor, reported that the whole building was dangerous, not one floor being level, nor one wall upright. (fn. 214) There were reasons other than the unsatisfactory state of the building which swayed the Governors to adopt their surveyor's suggestion to remove to a new site.

During the last quarter of the 18th century a gradual improvement had taken place in the public attitude towards the victims of mental disease, a change due in part to the work of John Howard and other reformers, and in part perhaps to the mental attacks of the King. (fn. n1) The inmates of Bethlem were no longer looked on as a "rareeshow" and the whip was discredited as an instrument of treatment, but fetters and straw were still in use, and the Governors, though resenting external criticism and control (they spent £600 in opposing the Madhouse Bill of 1815 in Parliament), were aware that the administration of the hospital left much to be desired. (fn. 217) The old building was too confined and its associations too strong to admit of any great improvements there, and the Governors decided to remove the hospital to larger premises where the patients could be separated into categories and given better conditions and where there was sufficient space to allow them outdoor exercise.

From 1801 to 1807 various sites were discussed, and for a time it seemed probable that the remove might be to Islington, but in June, 1807, the President and Treasurer reported that they had viewed "certain land lying in St. George's Fields being the site lately occupied by the Dog & Duck and at present held by Mr. Hedger under the Bridge House Estates" and recommended it as being fit and proper for the purpose they had in mind. (fn. 218) The negotiations took another three years, but in 1810 an agreement was signed whereby, in exchange for the land in Moorfields, the City Corporation granted 11¾ acres of ground in St. George's Fields for the erection of a new hospital for a term of years equal to that still remaining on the Moorfields property (963 years) and at the token rent of a shilling a year.

The ground, roughly triangular in shape, had some houses along the road frontages (see Plate 36), a few of which were demolished for the new building, but the remainder, together with any land not required by the institution, were included in the grant in order to provide a source of revenue for the hospital. (fn. 171) In July, 1810, the newspapers carried an advertisement offering premiums of £200, £100, and £50 for the three best designs for a new Bethlem Hospital. James Lewis, the hospital surveyor, George Dance the younger, and S. P. Cockerell acted as adjudicators and they awarded first place to the design submitted by John Gandy (Plate 38). (fn. 218) Gandy's notes state that owing to the swampiness of the ground he did not think it possible to sink the building more than 3 feet from the surface. He proposed a basement storey for the domestic offices and 3 storeys above for the patients, each storey to contain 108 cells, eleven foot by seven foot six, with day rooms and keepers' rooms.

The food was all to be carried up from the basement by back staircases. He suggested that a pediment supported by six Doric columns should form a central feature; otherwise the building was to be plain brick with a stucco cornice, since he deemed any fine or decorative architecture to be out of place. His proposed elevation, preserved among the archives at Bridewell, presents a dreary expanse of brickwork. (fn. n2) (fn. 219) Figure 22: Boundary Stone, Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park The plans and elevations prepared by James Lewis which were adopted for the building were drawn from the three winning designs with such modifications as were suggested by the surveyor's own experience of the needs of the hospital. They comprised a range of buildings of a basement and 3 storeys 580 feet long parallel to Lambeth Road, with a central entrance under a portico. Lewis planned to have rooms for uncleanly patients on the basement floor so that the straw on which they slept could be easily changed.

All the patients' sleeping rooms were arched or groined to "Prevent accidents from fire and the noises of the turbulent affecting those above or below them." The infirmary, offices, and residential quarters for the staff were in the central block which served to separate the male and female patients. The foundation stone of the hospital was laid by the President, Sir Richard Carr Glyn, on 18th April, 1812. By October, 1814, the main structure was complete. The royal coat of arms in the pediment was made of Coade's artificial stone, the cost, 130 guineas for making and fixing, comparing favourably with the estimate of £500 for Portland stone. Across the frieze of the entablature was placed the inscription— "HEN · VIII · REGE · FVNDATVM · CIVIVM · LARGITAS · PERFECIT" The Governors sought the advice of John Bacon, the sculptor, as to the disposition of Caius Cibber's statues of Raving Madness and Melancholy from the gates of the old hospital which Gandy had proposed to place above the pediment.

Bacon advised that apart from renewing the toe of one of the figures and cleaning off the paint no attempt should be made to restore them. In his own words, no "intrusive chisel of any modern Sculpture [sic]" should be "suffered to invade the surface of these specimens of Original Art." (fn. 218) The statues were accordingly placed in the entrance hall where they remained until the 1850's. They are now in the Guildhall Museum (Plate 41). In August, 1815, 122 patients were conveyed in hackney coaches from Moorfields to their new quarters. They must have suffered acute discomfort during their first winter; the system of warming by steam was installed only in the basement storey and the windows in the upper storeys were not glazed so that the sleeping cells were either exposed to the full blast of cold air or were completely darkened. The deputy surveyor replied to the complaints of the members of the Select Commission that the omission of glass was deliberate, since it allowed the cells to be ventilated to obviate "the disagreable effluvias peculiar to all madhouses." (fn.

220) The windows were, however, glazed during the summer of 1816. While the plans for the building were in preparation, the Governors received a request from the government to provide accommodation for criminal lunatics who until then had been confined with ordinary prisoners in gaol. The request was the result of a Select Committee report of 1807 pointing out the disadvantages of mixing lunatics indiscriminately with other prisoners. The expense of the criminal blocks, completed in 1816, was defrayed by the government, who also paid for the maintenance of the inmates. Accommodation was provided for 15 women and 45 men. (fn. 172) The eastern end of the hospital grounds, abutting on Ely Place (now Geraldine Street) and the gardens of the houses in West Square (see Plate 36), remained open until 1828, when the Governors leased it for 61 years to the Governors of the sister institution, Bridewell, for the erection of "a House of Occupations for the employment and relief of destitute of both sexes." (fn.

171) These premises, which were afterwards known as King Edward's Schools, remained in use until 1931, when the children were removed to Witley. The old schools were pulled down soon after. The first big alteration to the hospital was made in 1835, when the male criminal block was enlarged to take another 30 men. By this time the ordinary wards of the hospital had become congested, and Sydney Smirke was engaged to plan an enlargement of the whole institution. Besides providing accommodation for nearly double the original number of patients, Smirke was asked to provide workshops for the male patients and laundries for the employment of the female patients, while retaining the symmetry of the front elevation. The plan on Plate 39 shows how he solved the problem by building wing blocks at either end of the frontage and two long galleried blocks across the garden at the rear.

Workshops and storage sheds were erected in the front yards, but the administrative block in the centre of the building was left with an unimpeded view of the gardens in front of the hospital which had been enlarged by the diversion northwards of Lambeth Road (see Plate 39), and which Smirke laid out afresh. (fn. 221) Smirke also designed the single-storey lodge fronting Lambeth Road. The original building had a low cupola as its central feature. In 1812, when the Admiralty was arranging communication by telegraph with Sheerness, it was suggested that the cupola might be used as one of the stations, but the Governors objected on the grounds that the instrument would be noisy and would affect light and ventilation and it was placed in West Square instead (fn. 218) (see Plate 44a). The cupola was replaced in 1844–46 by the existing copper-covered dome, designed by Smirke, and built mainly to enlarge the chapel beneath. (fn.

218) As a result of the Acts of 1808 and 1815, a number of county asylums were built during the second quarter of the 19th century, and there was less need for Bethlem to cater for the poorer type of patient. The complaint of a female patient led to an inspection of the hospital by the Lunacy Commissioners in 1851, and as a result of their recommendations, the first resident medical officer, Dr. W. Charles Hood, was appointed. (fn. 222) During his term of office he gradually replaced the pauper patients by men and women of education and culture, a process which was hastened by the removal of the criminal patients to Broadmoor in 1864. Many of the new patients could afford to pay for their keep, and Dr. Hood improved the amenities of the building to give them, as far as possible, the comforts to which they had been accustomed in their own homes. (fn.

172) Between 1866 and 1869 the Governors of Bethlem built a convalescent home at Witley, designed by Smirke, for patients on the way to recovery, but the main part of the institution remained in Southwark until after the 1914–18 war, when the Governors decided to build new premises in rural surroundings. The removal to Monks Orchard at Addington in Surrey was sanctioned by Act of Parliament in 1926. (fn. 223) The freehold of the old site was purchased by Viscount Rothermere in 1930 and vested in the London County Council for the formation of a public open space, to be known as the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park in memory of his mother. The side wings and some other parts of the building were demolished. The central portion of the front, with the dome looking disproportionately high above it, and the rear galleries were leased to the Commissioners of Works to house the Imperial War Museum. (fn.

177) The building, which was opened to the public in 1936, was damaged considerably by bombs in 1940, 1941, and 1944, but by 1946 was sufficiently repaired for the museum to be re-opened. It is perhaps appropriate that a building occupied for so many years by men and women of unsound mind should now be used to house exhibits of that major insanity of our own time, war. Figure 23: Boundary stone, formerly at the N.W. corner of the grounds of Bethlem Hospital Footnotes n1 . In 1808 an Act "for the better Care and maintenance of Lunatics being Paupers or Criminals" was passed which empowered Justices of the Peace to erect County Lunatic Asylums. It was amended by an Act of similar title in 1815. n2 . In 1811, the surveyor contracted for 3,000,000 yellow stock bricks at £2 10s. a thousand. 21 . Cal. of Pat. Rolls. 171 . Maudsley Hospital, Records.

Bethlem Royal Hospital Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Bethlem Royal Hospital The Bethlem Royal Hospital, (which has been variously known as Bethlem Hospital, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam) is the world's oldest psychiatric hospital . It has been a part of London since 1247 , first as a priory for the sisters and brethren of the order of the Star of Bethlehem. Its first site was in Bishopsgate Street ( where Liverpool Street station now stands ). In 1330 it is mentioned as a hospital, and it is documented that in 1403 some of the first lunatics were there. In 1547 Bedlam was handed over by Henry VIII with all its revenues to the city of London as a hospital for lunatics. It became famous and afterwards infamous for the brutal ill-treatment meted out to the insane. In 1675 Bedlam moved to new buildings in Moorfields , outside the City boundary. In the 18th century people used to go there to see the lunatics. For a penny one could peer into their cells, view the freaks of the "show of Bethlehem" and laugh at their antics.

The lunatics were first called "patients" in 1700 , and "curable" and "incurable" wards were opened in 1725-34. In 1815 , Bedlam was moved to St George's Fields, Lambeth (into buildings now used to house the Imperial War Museum ). Finally, in 1930 , the hospital was moved to an outer suburb of London, Eden Park near Beckenham , Kent . Scene of Bethlem Hospital from Hogarth's A Rake's Progress Bethlem was most notably portrayed in a scene from William Hogarth 's A Rake's Progess ( 1735 ), the story of a rich merchant's son whose immoral living causes him to end up in a ward at Bethlem. This reflects the view of the time that madness was a result of moral weakness. The word "Bedlam" has long been used for lunatic asylums in general, and later for a scene of uproar and confusion. In another old English use of the word, "a Bedlam" (or more colloquially a "Tom O' Bedlam") signified one discharged from Bethlem Hospital and licensed to beg.

Such persons wore a tin plate on their arm as a badge and were known as Bedlamers, Bedlamites, or Bedlam Beggars. Notable patients of Bethlem hospital Bedlam | hospital, Beckenham, England, United Kingdom | Britannica.com hospital, Beckenham, England, United Kingdom Written By: Alternative Titles: Bethlehem Royal Hospital, Priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem Related Topics London 1970s overview Bedlam, byname of Bethlem Royal Hospital , the first asylum for the mentally ill in England . It is currently located in Beckenham, Kent . The word bedlam came to be used generically for all psychiatric hospitals and sometimes is used colloquially for an uproar. In 1247 the asylum was founded at Bishopsgate, just outside the London wall, by Simon FitzMary, former sheriff of London; it was then known as the Priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem (from which sprang the variant spellings Bedlam and Bethlem). Bedlam was mentioned as a hospital in 1329, and some permanent patients were accommodated there by 1403.

In 1547 it was granted by Henry VIII to the City of London as a hospital for the mentally ill. It subsequently became infamous for the brutal ill treatment meted out to its patients. In the 17th and 18th centuries Bedlam was open to fee-paying spectators, but this disruptive practice was ended in 1770. The hospital was moved in 1675–76 to Moorfields (just north of the ancient London wall at Moorgate), in 1815 to St. George’s Fields (now in Southwark ), and in 1930 to Monks Orchard, Beckenham. Now a part of the National Health Service , it is linked administratively with the Maudsley Hospital. Since 1936 the old hospital building in Southwark has been the site of the Imperial War Museum . Learn More in these related articles:

Question: Which London museum occupies part of the old Bethlehem Royal Hospital?
Answer: IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM